


laughter at dawn

by Areiton



Series: Find Me In the World [18]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Getting Together, Happy Stiles Stilinski, Healthy Relationships, M/M, Mental Health Issues, POV Outsider, POV Sheriff Stilinski, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Stilinski Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:57:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: John didn’t realize how much he missed that, how much he had grieved its loss, until it’s back, the noise of it filling up a silent house.





	laughter at dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Sheriff Stilinski's POV again. <3

Stiles laughed when he was a little boy. It was something that filled up their home, this bright infectious laughter that played so well with Claudia’s and never failed to bring a smile to John’s lips.

No matter how ugly the world was, no matter what he saw at work, when he went home, he was greeted with full body laughter and his son’s big smiles and Claudia’s grin, quietly amused.

He was a happy boy, exuberant to the point of exhaustion, constantly getting into trouble with Scott, and John thought--

He had the foolish thought that it would never change. That Stiles would always be almost defiantly alive and happy. That he would be almost _daring_ the world to shatter his world.

Except.

The world did.

Claudia got sick, and for a while, Stiles didn’t know. He was still bright laughter, so wild and alive that it was painful, compared to her. And even that, slowly, dimmed. Stiles dimmed. A bright loud light going still and dark.

It broke something in John, to see that. As much as Claudia dying shattered him in ways he’d never recover from, the house empty of Stiles' laughter did the same.

After she died, he drank sometimes, just so he couldn’t hear the silence where his wife and son used to be.

It was a gradual thing, after her death, Stiles laughing again. But it began to happen. They had each other, if not Claudia, and they both knew that it wasn’t _enough_ but it was better than nothing. They clung to each other in a way he sometimes thought was unhealthy--but Stiles gradually came back to life. And sometimes. Not often. But sometimes--he came home to a loud house filled with laughter.

And then the shit storm of supernatural and werewolf shenanigans slammed into them and Stiles wasn’t laughing, he wasn’t smiling, he was the quiet walking wounded that Claudia was near the end.

Even after they left Beacon Hills and time and distance made the pain dull and manageable--it was still quiet when he entered Stiles’ house. It was like the house was haunted, still, by the ghosts and scars Stiles carried.

But in the months after he finds Derek Hale at his son’s breakfast table, Stiles’ skin red from beard burn and littered with love bites--he hears laughter.

Stiles is _happy_ in a way he hasn’t seen since Claudia was alive. Even when Derek returns--reluctantly--to his pack in Maine, Stiles smiles. He laughs at his phone and giggles when he hides behind doors that are too thin, talking to Derek.

John didn’t realize how much he missed that, how much he had grieved its loss, until it’s back, the noise of it filling up a silent house.

He lets himself into the house on a Sunday morning a few months after Derek appeared in Stiles’ living room--John has his reservations about that story that Stiles told him but he wasn’t going to point out that Derek only ever appeared in Stiles’ bedroom--and hums quietly to himself as he sets about making the turkey bacon that he complains about far more than he actually dislikes.

He can hear voices upstairs and smiles. He didn’t realize Derek was coming to town today.

Once upon a time, Derek appearing without warning wouldn’t string a smile across his lips--it would only cause panic and worry and a bloody fight before whatever problem that had followed him into their lives was dealt with.

Now--

Now he hummed and started chopping vegetables for the omlet and listened to his son laughing with the man he loved.

It wasn’t perfect, this thing they were doing--Stiles hated the distance and there were still moments when both retreated, fighting their demons and each other.

But.

Stiles was laughing. Derek Hale had made his son’s laughter fill their life again.

And _that_ was perfect.


End file.
